Finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations, along with officials from other countries, met Monday in Washington to discuss a path forward to “address vulnerabilities in critical minerals supply chains,” the Treasury department said in a statement.
“I am optimistic that nations will pursue prudent derisking over decoupling and understand well the need for decisive action,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a post on X.
Critical minerals supply chains have become “highly concentrated and vulnerable to disruption and manipulation,” Bessent told attendees, which included representatives from the G-7 nations, as well as the European Union, Australia, South Korea, India and Mexico.
He thanked the attendees “for their willingness to both learn from and work quickly with each other towards decisive action and lasting solutions,” the Treasury said.
Critical minerals and so-called rare earths elements can be found in many nations around the world but much of the processing of these elements occurs in China, which has given the country leverage in trade talks with the US and in negotiations with other countries on geopolitical matters.
“This is a concrete and positive step towards building resilience in critical raw materials on which Western countries are almost totally dependent,” Italy’s Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said in a statement. “It is a matter of national security in the face of possible supply restrictions.”
It’s important to “manage domestic demand for critical raw materials and build an alternative supply,” Giorgetti said.
France, which holds the G-7 presidency this year, pledged to put a high priority on critical minerals and supply chain security during its leadership tenure, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told reporters after the meeting.
Minimum prices for critical raw materials, forming a trading club and implementing recycling quotas were among the topics discussed, Klingbeil said. Representatives from JP Morgan and the Export-Import Bank of the US gave presentations during the meeting, according to Klingbeil.
“I think it is right that the Americans are putting so much pressure on this issue,” Klingbeil said after the meeting. “However, there are a number of questions that remain open and need to be clarified in the coming weeks.”
Officials could move quickly to make decisions about how to approach the issue, working in a time-frame of “weeks and months rather than years,” Klingbeil said.
“This is not an exclusive club,” Klingbeil said. “We have discussed ideas and many questions have arisen in the debates that need to be clarified by experts.”